Nav vs. Credit Sesame: Which is best for you?

Business owners have choices when selecting credit monitoring tools. While both Nav and Credit Sesame offer valuable services, they serve distinctly different purposes. 

Let’s take a look at the differences between the two.

Nav vs. Credit Sesame at a glance

*Nav vs. Credit Sesame comparison reflects service features as of this writing and is subject to change.

Nav specializes in business credit monitoring and credit building, alongside personal credit monitoring, which can often make it a go-to choice for entrepreneurs. 

Credit Sesame focuses solely on personal credit, which limits its usefulness for business owners who need to establish and monitor their business credit profiles.

The choice between these platforms comes down to your specific needs. If you're running a business and want to establish business credit (and monitor personal credit), Nav provides a comprehensive solution. 

If you only need personal credit monitoring, Credit Sesame offers a simple, focused approach.

How Nav helps build business credit

Services offered

Nav offers a free and paid service. With Nav Prime, the paid membership, you’ll get detailed credit report information from three major business credit reporting agencies: Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), Equifax, and Experian, along with business credit scores based on that data.¹ 

Personal credit is also important to lenders, and with Nav Prime you'll get detailed personal credit report information and scores from Experian and TransUnion. 

This information is updated monthly when you log in. Understand what these companies are reporting about your business, and view both business and personal credit in one dashboard.

In your Credit Health dashboard in your Nav account, see aggregate trends in your credit, key factors impacting your scores, and insights into new progress you've made.

You'll also see reported information about public records, including UCC filings, that may directly and indirectly impact financing or other opportunities.

Nav Prime offers a tradeline submitted monthly to major business credit bureaus to help you build and maintain a strong business credit history. You can apply for the Nav Prime Card for a second tradeline.²

A free Nav account offers summary credit reports and grades from two business credit bureaus, and one personal credit report score and summary. Since there is no payment involved, it does not offer tradeline reporting.

Both types of accounts feature real-time alerts to help you understand and act on what may be holding your business back from business financing or growth options.

User experience

Sign up for Nav online at Nav.com or through the mobile app.

Whether you sign up for a free Nav account or upgrade to Nav Prime, you'll provide personal information, including your address and Social Security Number. You'll need to answer questions about your credit experience to verify your identity and access personal credit information. When you create a free or paid Nav account for the first time, there is a soft credit check that does not affect your credit scores.

You'll also be given the opportunity to claim your business, so you can access your business credit reports and scores, if available. 

You can connect your business bank account to get cash flow insights. Email alerts will let you know about important changes in your credit history.

New to business credit? Learn how to establish business credit.

Pricing

A free Nav account provides business credit summary reports and grades from Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax, and Experian, and a personal credit score and summary from Experian and TransUnion. This information is updated monthly when you log in.

Nav Prime, the paid version, starts at $39.99/month with discounts available for quarterly or annual payments. With Nav Prime you'll get detailed credit data, including both business and personal data and scores, updated monthly when you log in.

A FICO score for business — the FICO Small Business Scoring Service (SBSS) score — is also available with the highest Nav Prime plan.

Nav is the only source for free and paid credit monitoring services for both business and personal credit in one dashboard.

Customer support

Nav offers support by chat, email, and phone.

Security features

Nav processes sensitive data with at least 128-bit encryption.

Reviews

Nav has 476 reviews with Trustpilot with an average rating of 4.5 as of September 24, 2025.

How does Credit Sesame credit monitoring help build business credit?

Credit Sesame is a platform built for personal credit insights. It doesn't offer business credit reports or scores. 

Services offered

Credit Sesame offers a free consumer credit report summary and consumer credit score from TransUnion, along with insights into the main factors influencing your consumer credit score.

Credit Sesame+, the paid version, shows full consumer credit reports and scores from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. (All are personal credit reports, not business credit reports, and do not help build business credit.)

User experience

You'll sign up online at CreditSesame.com or on the mobile app, and provide personal information, including your address and Social Security number. 

You'll be asked questions about your credit history to verify your identity. A soft credit check will be used to provide your reports and to show financial products; it does not affect your credit scores.

Once you have signed up, you'll get instant access to your TransUnion credit score and summary TransUnion credit report, a detailed explanation of the factors affecting your score, along with financial offers such as auto loans or insurance.

Pricing

The free version of Credit Sesame provides daily credit reports from TransUnion, along with a credit score calculated using the VantageScore 3.0 scoring model.

Sesame+, a paid version, offers a free seven-day trial, and costs $19.99 a month for three-bureau monitoring. (Offered prices may vary.) 

Sesame+ includes three-bureau monitoring from major credit bureaus to show full consumer reports, credit scores and insights, Credit Builder, rent reporting, credit dispute resolution support, fraud alerts, $1 million identity theft insurance and lost wallet protection.

Customer support

Credit Sesame offers a customer support form for general inquiries. Sesame+ offers live assistance for dispute resolution and identity theft assistance.

Security features

Credit Sesame follows generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to them, both during transmission and after receipt. Credit Sesame's legal policies are listed here.

Reviews

Credit Sesame has 2,115 reviews on Trustpilot with an average rating of 1.1, as of September 24, 2025.

Nav vs. Credit Sesame: Credit reporting agencies used

The key difference between Nav and Credit Sesame lies in their approach to credit report insights and monitoring. Nav provides comprehensive coverage of both business and personal credit from multiple agencies, while Credit Sesame focuses exclusively on personal credit monitoring.

Nav

Business credit

Nav offers a comprehensive credit monitoring solution for business owners by providing access to both business and personal credit data from multiple credit bureaus.

For business credit monitoring, Nav provides business credit data from major business credit bureaus Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax, and Experian. 

A free Nav account gives you business credit grades and summary reports from both agencies, while Nav Prime delivers detailed business credit reports with specific scores including the Equifax^® Business Delinquency Score^®, the Experian™ Intelliscore Plus℠ V2, and D&B PAYDEX^® score.

Personal credit

On the personal credit side, Nav provides consumer credit reports and scores from Experian and TransUnion. 

Free accounts include a summary personal credit report and score from Experian (Experian™ VantageScore^® 3.0), while Nav Prime expands this to include detailed reports and scores from both Experian and TransUnion.

Credit Sesame

Business credit reports

Credit Sesame does not offer business credit reports or scores. 

Personal credit reports

The free version provides your personal credit score and summary report from TransUnion using the VantageScore 3.0 model, updated daily when you log in. 

Credit Sesame+ (a paid service) expands this coverage to include full personal credit reports and scores from all three major consumer credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

Nav vs. Credit Sesame: Mobile app

Nav

Check up on your financial health anywhere with the Nav Business Financial Health app. It has more than 100,000 downloads in the Google Play store, with an average rating of 4.9 (out of 5), as of September 25, 2025.

Features include: 

• View your detailed credit reports and credit scores (with Nav Prime), or summary reports and credit grades with a free account
• Monitor real-time alerts to better position your business for funding
• Forecast cash flow
• Get recommended small business loan and credit card offers

Credit Sesame

The Credit Sesame app has been downloaded more than 5 million times in the Google Play store, and has an average rating of 4.7 (out of 5.0), as of September 25, 2025.

Features include:

• See your personal credit report summary and what's impacting your credit scores
• See how you can improve your credit scores and save money
• Get matched with offers based on your credit score
• Shop with debit to build your credit score

Nav vs. Credit Sesame: Identity theft and fraud

Nav

Nav provides real-time alerts to help you identify changes to your business and personal credit reports. Monitor multiple business and personal credit reports with Nav.

Credit Sesame

Credit Sesame+ provides consumer credit report alerts and $1 million identity theft protection.

Nav vs. Credit Sesame: Credit-building features

This is where the most significant difference between Nav and Credit Sesame becomes clear. 

Nav offers business credit monitoring and credit building capabilities, while Credit Sesame only provides personal credit monitoring and building tools.

Nav's business credit building advantage

Nav Prime stands out as the only service that actively helps you build business credit history through tradeline reporting. When you sign up for Nav Prime, it is submitted to all three major business credit bureaus as a tradeline, which may help create a positive payment history that strengthens your business credit profile.

For businesses that want a second tradeline, the Nav Prime Card provides that, giving you up to two accounts actively building your business credit history each month. This dual tradeline approach is unique in the marketplace and can give Nav users an advantage in their business credit building journey. 

Credit Sesame's personal-only approach

Credit Sesame offers Credit Builder, a debit card designed to help build personal credit only. The Credit Builder works by opening a Sesame Cash prepaid debit account where you add money to your debit card. As you make purchases, Credit Sesame reports these payments to all three major consumer credit bureaus to help build your personal payment history.

While this can help improve personal credit scores, it provides limited business credit building opportunities. (There are a few business credit scores that may use blended personal and business credit data. It is possible that this service can impact those scores.) 

The monthly fee of $9.99 is waived for Sesame+ subscribers or with qualifying activity, and no minimum balance is required.